Spiral
by Kelekiah Galadrian
Summary: The great spiral staircase leads to the worst room in all of Hogwarts. Post-YGODM. Year 5. Oneshot.


**Lego:** This is for the 100 Themes challenge. Only canon oneshots will be posted. I'm doing this because Tears of a Lotus doesn't want to be written. This was partially inspired by a full-length HPYGO crossover in the works except that Yugi and Ryou aren't friends with the Golden Trio in that version.

 **Disclaimer:** The YuGiOh franchise belongs to Kazuki Takahashi. The Harry Potter franchise belongs to JK Rowling. I own only the story.

 **Spiral**

Ryou stopped at the bottom of the great spiral staircase. It extended far above him, reaching into the top of one of the tallest towers at Hogwarts. **  
**

"It's so high."

Ryou glanced at Yugi—took the words right out of his mouth—and nodded. "I think it's also the biggest in the whole castle."

"It is," Harry said from Ryou's other side, "and it leads to the worst classroom Hogwarts has to offer." Wasn't _that_ the truth. Ryou and Yugi hadn't even been to a single class yet, but Harry and Ron had told too many horror stories to actually look forward to it.

"Remind me why we're all still taking Divination?" Ron asked, voice echoing loudly behind them.

"I think a better question to ask is how you two managed to convince us to take Divination at all." Ryou gave the redhead a look. _"I_ wanted to take Arithmancy with Hermione."

Yugi's face collapsed into the epitome of guilty, complete with an unsure, breathy laugh. "Sorry, Ryou." It was, after all, his fault Ryou had been dragged into this mess.

Yugi swallowed and rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. "Maybe we should just skip class."

"I like that idea." Ron's shoes scuffed against the floor, and Ryou glanced over his shoulder to see the redhead had turned around. "Let's go back to the common room."

Harry grabbed onto the back of Ron's robes. "If all four of us are absent, Trelawney will get suspicious."

"Besides, what about your grades?" Ryou had always been a good student. Even if he hated a class, he always tried to do his best, and that was exactly how he'd planned to deal with Divination.

Yugi gave him a look—head tilted to the left, pursed lips, narrowed eyes—and sighed. "You're right, you're right. Come on, Ron."

The shortest of the four trudged up the stairs. Ron grumbled, but he followed Yugi, which just left Harry and Ryou waiting at the bottom. They shared a look before going up the stairs themselves.

It seemed like forever before they reached the top. Ryou's legs burned, his breath came short, and his heart pounded a quick but steady rhythm in his chest. He wiped sweat off the back of his neck from underneath his thick hair—times like these made him really want to cut it off—and panted as he looked around at the gathered students. They were probably the last ones to arrive, but no one had gone up into the classroom yet.

"Do we have to wait for her to let us in?" Yugi asked, comically bent over at the hips but head tilted back to see the trapdoor above them.

"Yeah," Harry replied, reaching out to steady the shorter male, who'd lost his balance. Yugi quickly straightened with a blush and another breathy laugh, but before he could say anything, the trapdoor opened. He jumped with a small yelp, getting a laugh out of Harry and Ron. Ryou couldn't help a smile.

A short ladder descended from the opening in the ceiling, and students began climbing up into the classroom. Ryou motioned for the others to go ahead of him, leaving him the last to enter. The smell of burning incense hit him first, and he nearly devolved into a coughing fit. One or two coughs escaped him as he followed Harry to a group of the weirdest-looking chairs he'd ever seen. The two of them sat down on one side of the table, Ron and Yugi on the other side.

"Welcome to Divination."

Ryou jumped at the mystic-sounding voice. The chill that rippled down his spine increased in intensity when his eyes fell on the source. Professor Trelawney—he guessed—looked like a beetle. He just barely stopped himself from making a face, especially when she went on speaking.

By the end of the lesson, Ryou had decided he fully detested Divination. It could put him to sleep as well as History of Magic could, but unlike Binns, Trelawney actually cared that her students pay attention. Surprisingly, Yugi was the first one out of the classroom, Ryou on his heels. Neither of them stopped until they reached the bottom of the spiral staircase, which meant that they had to wait for Harry and Ron to catch up.

"Man, you two split fast." The redhead slapped Yugi across the back. The other stumbled forward a couple of steps.

"Never again," he said, turning plum on Ryou. "You can't make me."

"You can't just not go to class," Harry said, folding his arms.

Yugi rapidly shook his head. "Yes I can."

Ryou chuckled. "We can last the year."

Yugi looked torn.

"Yeah," Ron added. "If we have to suffer, so do you."

"Maybe we should all stop attending after this year." Ryou couldn't imagine putting up with Trelawney for more than a year, and apparently his words made an impact because both Harry and Ron looked thoughtful.

Yugi grit his teeth. "Alright, alright. We'll make it through this year, and then we're all done. Deal?"

Three voices echoed, "Deal!"

"Now let's get down to the Great Hall. I'm starved."

Ryou held back a chuckle, but Harry laughed openly as the two of them followed a smiling Yugi and a scowling Ron down the corridor.


End file.
